TOS on blu-ray. Hurry up already!!!!

[Maab of the Ten Tribes]

What on earth is taking so freaking long to get this out? I bought the first season on HD-DVD and they looked absolutely amazing in high def (on the episodes my player would play - they had some faulty discs but thats another thread). I am dying here needing my high def TOS. I've scoured the interwebs and there is no news to be found about Paramount even talking about releasing this on blu-ray. Does anyone here know what the hold-up could be? Maybe they are wating to coincide with the release date of the new movie next year? Come on give us something, Paramount.

 

[zopman]

What on earth is taking so freaking long to get this out? I bought the first season on HD-DVD and they looked absolutely amazing in high def (on the episodes my player would play - they had some faulty discs but thats another thread). I am dying here needing my high def TOS. I've scoured the interwebs and there is no news to be found about Paramount even talking about releasing this on blu-ray. Does anyone here know what the hold-up could be? Maybe they are wating to coincide with the release date of the new movie next year? Come on give us something, Paramount.

Yup, that's my take as well. My guess is they will also finally broadcast the remastered "The Cage" to promote the BluRay set release, which will probably be a month before the movie release. Just an "educated" guess, of course.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

At the very least, I'd want the iTunes Store to put the remaining TOS-R episodes on there as well. Until the Blu-Ray release of course.

 

[VOODOOXI]

I thought I read somewhere that they will be coming out around the same time the movie comes out.

 

[gastrof]

I've wondered if it's a matter of tech conversion.

Paramount/CBS/whoever was all in gear to do HD-DVD, and then that format went belly up.

I mean, everything they had set to go was dependent on using that format. I don't know how such things work, but I'd imagine while they have high def recordings of the remastered episodes, those recordings have to be converted in some way to HD-DVD.

Since that format was the intended target, they must have to start all over again, converting one episode after another to Blu-Ray, and THEN have "whoever" set things up to do Blu-Ray discs instead of HD-DVD.

Notice they released season two (and three?) on regular DVD. That was easy. They had those versions ready. It was the Blu-Ray ones that they didn't have.

I'm not denying there may have been a decision to time the Blu-Ray release in connnection with the movie's release date, but that likely was after the fact. I think most would agree that until HD-DVD crashed and burned, the intention was to get the high def versions of seasons two and three out LONG before this.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

high def recordings of the remastered episodes, those recordings have to be converted in some way to HD-DVD.

No, they don't.

 

[James Bond]

What on earth is taking so freaking long to get this out? I bought the first season on HD-DVD and they looked absolutely amazing in high def (on the episodes my player would play - they had some faulty discs but thats another thread). I am dying here needing my high def TOS. I've scoured the interwebs and there is no news to be found about Paramount even talking about releasing this on blu-ray. Does anyone here know what the hold-up could be? Maybe they are wating to coincide with the release date of the new movie next year? Come on give us something, Paramount.

Yes. Oh dear GOD yes. Hurry up, Paramount!

 

[Ronald Held]

Why wait until next year to release existing material on Blu-Ray?

 

[Good Will Riker]

Notice they released season two (and three?) on regular DVD. That was easy. They had those versions ready. It was the Blu-Ray ones that they didn't have.

If the Broccoli family can authorize the remastered Ultimate Edition DVDs of the first 20 James Bond films as their primer for Blu-ray, this too can happen for ST:TOS.

 

[gastrof]

I don't think you're reading or understanding what I said.

I didn't say it CAN'T happen.

I said it'll take TIME for it to happen.

 

[gastrof]

high def recordings of the remastered episodes, those recordings have to be converted in some way to HD-DVD.

No, they don't.

Okay, o' grand master of high def video...

YOU tell us why the Blu-Ray version didn't come out with the DVD version.

If it doesn't take "conversion" to make a HD-DVD version, then it must not take any "conversion" to make a Blu-Ray version.

If that's the case, then why didn't the Blu-Ray version of season two come out when the regular DVD version did?

If there's no conversion involved, once it was known the HD-DVD format was dead, why didn't the season two discs come out as DVD & Blu-Ray, then?

 

[BillJ]

If it was mastered in the VC-1 codec, I'm pretty sure they could just rip it off the HD-DVD disc and burn it to a Blu-Ray and it would play. But, that would only work for the actual episodes. The interactive special features would have to be re-done.

I'm sure the hold up has to do more with the fact that Toshiba helped foot the bill for re-mastering. Sure there is some sort of exclusivity window written into the contracts prohibiting a Blu-Ray release (until xx-xx-xxxx date).

 

[Borjis]

If it was mastered in the VC-1 codec, I'm pretty sure they could just rip it off the HD-DVD disc and burn it to a Blu-Ray and it would play. But, that would only work for the actual episodes. The interactive special features would have to be re-done.

The specs for VC-1 (as it functions for blu-ray) were revised a few times as 1st gen players were released.

There are instances where a VC-1 encode will work for HD-DVD but not contain the proper bitstream flagging for Blu-Ray authoring. It's the right resolution and bitrate but the metadata isn't quite right, requiring a re-encode. Some of the Blu-Ray reviews have reported VC-1 re-encodes and some even end up as AVC-HD instead of VC-1 on the port over now that AVC is rolling.

and as Billj pointed out U-controls would have to be ported.


I'm with everyone on this though they should be releasing them for cryin out loud but are probably waiting for
more player penetration ($150 br players for black friday) and anticipation buildup on the new movie.

Paramount should do what disney does and include a standard dvd with the HD version as an extra
(sleeping beauty) so you can watch it in rooms/vehicles with no BR drive.

 

[Darren2001]

It's as simple as this.
Paramount and all the other exclusive supporters/manfacturers of HD-DVD had no idea Toshiba were going to suddenly announce they were dropping support for the format.
Paramount home entertainment don't just decide to release something over night and have it out in a few weeks.
They have a list of release dates scheduled for the entire year and a budget set aside for getting these titles to market. The HD bugget was blown on HD-DVD which lost. But they never should have gone exclusive to that format anyway. It was a ploy by Toshiba and PHE and it backfired.
Usually a studio will announce some high profile titles that are coming up over the next year and they themselves know exactly what is coming out and when.
When HD-DVD went under, they couldn't just schedule a Blu-ray release right away. Immediately that meant it wouldn't be out in 2008.
It will definitely be released in 2009 in the run up to to the Star Trek movie.
Expect an announcment about this in Jan/Feb next year with a release in June/July coinciding with Star Trek Movie Blu-ray.
Believe me, they have scheduled this release for next year.
As for the process of conversion.
There isn't much to be done really.
The source material is good to go. By now Paramount Home Entertainment are fully kitted out with Blu ray authoring suites.
The biggest admin involved is the designing of new packaging.
Even if it looks the exact same as the HD-DVD bar a Blu bar on the front, someone somewhere has to be employed to do that job for them.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'm not buying the "HD DVD exclusive" keeping TOS from a Blu-Ray release.

I mean, HD DVD no longer exists! So all protestations of exclusivity would seem to be irrelevant, ya? Whoever is ultimately responsible for TOS-R's home video release could not be expected to exclusively commit to a DEAD FORMAT.